


Like Helium

by Megilhirile



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Anger, Fantasy, Gen, Reality Bending, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megilhirile/pseuds/Megilhirile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah suffers from a burst of anger. What happens next is NOT what she intended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Helium

Fighting came naturally to Sarah. She fought with her stepmother all the time. Screaming matches about the silliest little things; the fact that Sarah tended to stay home on Friday nights, reading, instead of out with friends like a normal girl her age was a very popular argument point. Tonight, Sarah’s stepmother had really pushed a button, demanding that Sarah stay home with her irritating half-brother Toby while her father and not-mother went out to a party.

And Sarah’s father had taken her stepmother’s side. OF COURSE he had taken her stepmother’s side; he always did. Sarah was nothing more than a reminder of a painful memory… Sarah’s mother, who had tragically gone missing when Sarah was barely a year old. Sarah kept the newspaper clippings about her mother’s disappearance taped to her mirror. It’s true that she looked just like her. Except for the color of Sarah’s eyes, which were a cold gray stormcloud compared to the bright sunny day reflected in her mother’s irises.

Tonight, Sarah’s mood matched her eyes. Although, if she thought about it, her mood matched the weather, too. Outside was gray and cloudy, and when she had been out at the park with Merlin a half hour ago, the air had been bristling with energy, like it was waiting for a lightning strike. Maybe the fire crackling inside Sarah’s blood was part of that energy… almost supernatural, really. It seemed like no matter how much Sarah wanted to calm down, it wasn’t going to happen. The night had an edge to it, and Sarah wasn’t coming down off of that edge. 

And then Toby started screaming.

In Sarah’s defense, it WAS a fantasy book. It was how she escaped from reality; it wasn’t supposed to be reality itself. Wishing for the goblins to come and take Toby away was supposed to be a JOKE, not a REAL wish. His constant crying had just frustrated her, and on top of the fight with her stepmother and the sinister feeling in the air, it had just struck a nerve and suddenly Sarah had just snapped.

When Sarah said the words -- those horrible, dangerous words -- a pale, ethereal man had appeared in the window, using shadows and tricks of light to confuse Sarah’s senses. The electricity in her veins had intensified, anger flashed in her cold gray eyes like lightning, and before she knew it she had sworn an oath. And the baby was gone, and the strange man stood with her on a dry, red hilltop, overlooking a similarly dry-and-red wasteland, and then the man was gone and here she was all alone, with a task and a purpose and a regret. Sarah’s thoughts swirled; she tried to grasp at them like a small child trying to catch that one errant balloon that floated away in a helium dream.

That’s what this felt like. A helium dream. First, her veins had been filled with a burning hot electricity, and now, they drifted slowly in an incredible lightness. Only Toby kept her grounded.


End file.
